Dr Sue Chadwick

Solicitor, Strategic Advisor, Pinsent Masons

Sue’s background is as a planning solicitor in local government, and she has always combined this with an academic interest in the subject.

As well as more than 20 years of experience as a planning solicitor in the private and public sector Sue has a PhD on the meaning of sustainable development in the National Planning Policy Framework, has written books on neighbourhood planning and planning decisions and published articles in the Journal of Planning and Environmental Law on the Public Sector Equality Duty and planning and AI.

Her current research focus is digital planning. She spent a year as a Research Fellow with the ODI resulting in publication of a report Digital planning and its Implications.

Sue is a member of the London Data Board, and Chair of Business London Data Working Group. She is also a member of Brent Council Data Ethics Board, Profusion Data Ethics Advisory Board and Chair of the RED Foundation Data Ethics Steering Group

Contributed to

1

Digital planning in England

Practice Notes

This Practice Note begins with a review of the existing law on data as it relates to the planning system: the digital planning provisions in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA 2023), provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) relevant to the use of data and the relevance of the 2004 Environmental Information regulations to the increasing use of data. It considers the wider implications of digitisation including human rights, the public sector equality duty (PSED), public decision-making and planning probity. It ends with an overview of the implications for the planning system of the increasing use of AI to support or replace a range of planning functions and processes, including guidance from the Planning Inspectorate on the use of large language models (LLMs) and recent comment in speeches by senior members of the judiciary. This Practice Note was last updated in December 2025.

Planning